Extreme Rules could prove be a game changer

Photo courtesy of WWE.com

 

By Giancarlo Aulino

BarnBurner.ca

 

TORONTO. - WWE bring their annual PPV event: Extreme Rules to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA tonight, a city where the extreme rules style matchups became famous. The event is filled with unique matchups and stipulations that should change the course of WWE programming as the company head into a new direction with Paul Heyman serving as Executive Director of Monday Night Raw and Eric Bischoff serving as the Executive Director of Smackdown Live.

Here are some notable matches to keep an eye on for Sunday’s event:

 

Almost every WWE championship will be defended on tonight’s show and the event will also see the return of The Undertaker as he’s set to team up with Roman Reigns to take on Drew McIntrye and Shane McMahon. The match is quite interesting considering the long history between all four competitors and because the outcome is likely to set up a future one-on-one match between Drew McIntyre and The Undertaker.

 

Also, the card will feature the long-awaited return of former NXT World Champion Aleister Black. For weeks, Black has been featured in backstage segments and vignettes on Smackdown Live, where he is pleading with somebody on the roster to knock on his door and challenge him to a fight.

 

Black’s challenge was answered this past week as it was revealed that Cesaro was the one who had knocked on Black’s door the previous week and that he’ll be fighting him at Extreme Rules. This match should be appealing to fans because this is Black’s first match on the main roster as a singles competitor as opposed to his previous matches where he was part of a tag-team with Ricochet since being brought up to the main roster.

 

Paul Heyman mentioned earlier in the week that current Money in the Bank holder Brock Lesnar will be cashing in his briefcase at the event on either WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins or WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. This isn’t the first time Heyman has made that claim, so you never know when Lesnar’s music will hit and whether he intends to cash-in the briefcase or just attack the champion. He does have a full year to do so and may not feel the need to take the championship now.

 

Lesnar holding the briefcase has been booked well because it adds an element of surprise as to when he cashes-in because he isn’t on WWE programming every week, so the cash-in could happen at any time and provide another memorable moment for fans.

 

Both Kofi Kingston and Seth Rollins will have their hands full tonight as they’re defending their championships at the event; Kofi Kingston defends the WWE Championship against former WWE United States Champion Samoa Joe and Seth Rollins will be teaming up with Becky Lynch to take on the team of Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans in a winner take all match for both the WWE Raw Women’s Championship and WWE Universal Championship.

 

The match that many fans feel should close the show is the WWE United States Championship match between the champion Ricochet and ‘The Phenomenal’ AJ Styles. Styles recently turned heel and aligned himself with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson to bring The Club back together and dominate the roster.

 

Styles had done a great job as babyface and did everything against multiple challengers, so a return to his heel persona with The Club could be a good way to further reinvent himself and be involved in feuds with some of the other top babyfaces, which will provide WWE with fresh programming as those matches are different than what they’d see if Styles was still a babyface.

 

It’ll be interesting to see how these outcomes shape the future direction of WWE programming, so fans will likely be in for a few surprises at tonight’s event.